I did a warranty inspection today and noticed that the attic only had gable vents and no roof jacks or ridge vent. It did have soffit vents. In the Seattle area this is the first "new construction" I ran across with no roof or ridge vents. I don't have a code book so I was wondering if anybody could help me out? Is this to code. BTW the furnace was in the attic if that makes any difference.

Sounds okay. Upper vents are gable vents and lower vents are soffit vents. If you are concerned about not having enough upper ventilation you can always recommend the addition of passive vents.

Check the IRC for the specs. Off the top of my head it's 1 SF of ventilation for each 150 SF of attic space. This can be reduced to 1 SF of ventilation for each 300 SF of attic space if more than 50% of the ventilation is upper vents.

Soffit vents and gable vents are standard here. Some of the higher-end construction are now using a combination of gable, soffit, and static vents. The gable vents are very decorative, and the static vents are very well camouflaged as part of the roof covering. Very nice. Of course, that extra $50,000 in workmanship adds $500,000 to the cost of the house.:shock:

Which is why gable vent fans are popular. I installed gables vents and a fan on an inline thermostat and dropped my cooling bill by $30 a month during the summer. Average attic temperature went from 140 degrees to about 100.

We have designer turbine vents out here. Certainly even the older ones are no uglier than the weatherhead, electric meter, electric panel, utility poles, neighbors' trash piled up against the fence, etc. And if they do the job in helping my roof last longer, I don't really care how ugly they are perceived to be by anyone. The roof is ugly anyway, so who cares?

I'm considering changing my roof to a green roof. In a desert envrionment, and with xeriscape landscaping on the roof, I think it will work well in continuing to lower my utility bills and, of course, I won't have to worry about the roof covering wearing out and needing replacement. I'll just have to worry about dieing plants. :D